Sticks and Ships
by ofsaltandsea
Summary: When Percy Jackson meets Ron Weasley, both are sent careening into one of the oddest side adventures they've ever experienced. This is bound to cause a lot of unnecessary paperwork for everyone involved.
1. Chapter 1

Standard disclaimer applies.

This takes place somewhere around the epilogue for Deathly Hallows, and post Son of Neptune.

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Chapter One

He had no idea where he was.

That was Percy's second thought when the crazy guys in the dresses had blitzed him and taken him here, wherever here was minutes or hours ago. Percy kind of thought that he had blacked out there for a minute like he used to do under heavy influence from the Mist, because one minute he was on a side street and the next here, wherever that was. Only, he was pretty that these guys weren't monsters.

At least they hadn't said anything about eating demigod for lunch yet, and he didn't really know of any monsters that were patient enough to toy with their food.

So. That left him with guys in dresses waving sticks at him.

And he thought America had weird cults. It was possible these guys were hippies, but he kind of doubted it. Percy had gone to a very "progressive" middle school for seventh grade, and these guys just did not give off the same vibe.

This would be an excellent example of his horrible luck. When they'd grabbed him, Percy had been heading back to the _Argo II_ after he had gotten separated from the others. They had definitely gotten someone's attention while in London, but this was not the kind of trouble Percy was hoping to stir up, and definitely not what he needed to defeat a giant.

He still didn't know the answer to his first question – who the guys in the dresses were – and that wasn't because he had kelp for brains, whatever Annabeth would say. They'd tied up his hands and tossed him in a chair, and then started arguing with each other.

It was pretty obvious these guys had never spent any time around a child of Hermes. Any demigod who wanted to keep his stuff or his life intact learned how to get out of these kinds of situations at camp. Percy had already worked out half of the knots when one of the younger guys had started shouting something about time travel, conspiracy theories and telling their captain. At least, he thought he was. He did mishear things on a regular basis.

A really tall redheaded dude walked in just then, and all the other guys started talking really fast at him and waving their sticks around. Percy had no idea what they were saying; these accents combined with his ADHD were seriously killing him. This guy must have been the captain, and he'd found them before anyone had decided to go looking for him. That might not be a good thing.

The redheaded dude, who was maybe in his mid-thirties with an impressively long nose, had invaded Percy's personal bubble. That was awkward. Percy slipped his hands out of his cut ropes behind his back and inched his hand toward his pocket. He got the feeling that maybe Riptide wasn't going to be a whole lot of help in this situation, but he'd feel better holding it. Percy still couldn't tell what he was dealing with here – these guys were probably mortal, but the Mist wasn't working right around them.

"So," began the redheaded dude – seriously, what was this guy's name? "You lot honestly think this is Harry from some botched past, who has somehow gotten a time turner and come to warn us?"

A couple of the men nodded; one or two shrugged at him.

"Stranger things have happened, Captain Weasley."

Weasley? As in, weasels? Percy fished his pen out of his pocket. That whole guinea pig thing on Circe's Island just kept coming back to haunt him. He was not going to be the guinea pig in this situation. Seriously, you spend a (very) short time as a rodent and the jokes never stop.

"I reckon you didn't check to see if he had a scar, did you? Or, you know, check to see if he looked anything like Harry when he was in school?"

The men shifted. Captain Weasley sighed, and waved his stick around. Something zoomed out of the door into his hand.

Oh. Magic. Percy blinked. That didn't actually explain anything at all, to be honest. None of the Hecate campers had ever needed to use a stick to steal a nose. And it really didn't explain the dresses. They were almost as bad as the bed sheets the Romans insisted on wearing.

Captain Weasley was holding a picture of what must have been himself and another guy, holding brooms. Percy was just going to ignore that for now as he stretched his neck to get a closer look at this guy he'd been mistaken as and then kidnapped for.

The boy in the photo was on the small and scrawny side. Clearly he did not spend his time dodging lava on the climbing wall and sword fighting in the summers, or even slaying monsters countless hours of any given week. Admittedly they both had dark hair, and as far as Percy could tell this guy's eyes were green too, but that was it as far as similarities go. And seriously, those glasses were way obvious and that scar – which _was _kind of cool – should have tipped these guys off long before they grabbed him.

If he continued to stay quiet, which was really very hard to do, Percy could probably slip out of the room without anyone noticing. Obviously he wasn't dealing with the best and brightest here, and since they had kind of forgotten he was there, he could leave once he figured out a way through the door.

Just then, the floor beneath him rumbled and burst apart right in between him and the captain. Hazel's curly head popped up out of hole. Her eyes widened when she saw the guys with the sticks. Frank popped up a second later, arrow notched.

"Percy! Come on!"

Percy didn't need to be told twice. He was already up and landing in the tunnel before Hazel had even finished speaking. Within seconds the three of them were tearing through her tunnel as Hazel collapsed sections of it behind them.

Several minutes later, they stopped to catch their breath.

"Who were those guys?" Frank panted.

"No idea. Thought they belonged to Hecate or something – "

"Hecate?"

Percy nodded. "Yeah, they were using magic. But with sticks." He shook his head. "Don't know what's up with that, and don't have the time to find out."

"But," Hazel glanced back in the direction they ran from, concerned. "If they're using magic that's not Greek or Roman, what is it? Weren't the gods here for a long time?"

"Maybe they have to use sticks because they're legacies?" Frank offered. "And Percy, why'd they grab you? Did they know you're a demigod?"

Percy sighed. It was almost embarrassing.

"Really ridiculous case of mistaken identity. They didn't know what I was, but they might be wondering now. Anyway, we have a bigger problem," he glanced pointedly at the ground underneath them. He didn't want to take his chances and say her name while under the ground. "That needs to be dealt with first, and we seriously need to get back to the ship."

With that, they took off. Whatever curiosity any of them had for the magic people they'd seen on their short misadventure would have to wait. They had an earth goddess to take care of first.

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Notes: It is the middle of the night in California, but my neighbor is snoring really loud. So I wrote this instead.

Please review it. I would love to hear thoughts, opinions, or even criticism.


	2. Chapter 2

So after the alerts I got for this story, I figured it could do with a few more chapters and some plot development. Enjoy.

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Chapter Two

Ron Weasley kicked up his heels onto Harry's mess of a desk and waited. Harry was almost late coming in again, but that was hardly a surprise. His nephews were at that young and tender age where they were really getting into the swing of sibling arguments, and his niece never liked to be left out. Harry had his hands full, and Ron would only be adding to it after this meeting.

He rubbed his temples with a long, exasperated groan.

Ron had a headache, one that wouldn't be going away any time soon.

It had been a few weeks since his rookie team of Aurors, consisting of Chand, Jenkins, and Eaton had grabbed that teenager. Everything had gone downhill since. The three of them had been so eager to prove themselves. It was why he'd taken them on personally – senior Aurors usually took on a promising rookie or two and trained them in the field, but these three hadn't been the best in the program, but they were determined. Honestly, they reminded him of himself when he first started, and he felt obligated to help them. With time and attention, they could be groomed into excellent Aurors. If he had done it, they could.

He really didn't think this confidence in their potential was misplaced.

But he really wished they hadn't taken it upon themselves to attempt to bring someone in and interrogate them without him, especially a kid.

And what a kid they had brought in.

Helena Eaton, who was normally rather nice, watched far too many Muggle shows. It was she who had been completely convinced that the kid was a time-traveling and possibly parallel universe-crossing younger Harry Potter from a past gone horribly wrong and in need of help.

Why she would leap to this conclusion, let alone consider it a viable explanation was beyond Ron's understanding. It was a little embarrassing to watch, actually. Ron himself was once more than prone to some wild leaps of the imagination, and however much he joked about them then, they _did_ cross his mind. He hoped he wasn't quite as bad as Eaton, but he had a sneaking suspicion he was.

With a clatter, Harry pushed open his office door. He mumbled something vaguely resembling a good morning before dumping a sizeable stack of papers and his wand on his desk.

"Not that I'm not always glad to see you, but what are you doing in my office so early?" Harry said, once he sat down.

"Well," Ron began. There really was no easy way to say it. "You know that the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures has been having a lot of trouble lately?"

Harry frowned. "Er, not really. Haven't been keeping up with all the office gossip, what with the botched Blackburn case of the supposed Dark Wizard in the hedges."

"Anyway, they have been. And they've asked me and my team to come in on a case with them," Ron sighed. He watched as Harry processed this for a moment.

"Are you telling me, that they honestly think a Dark Wizard has something to do with what, their latest case of fire-breathing chickens?"

Ron sighed again. He understood what Harry was saying, really. The occasional Dark Wizard had been known to use magical creatures in the past, and Merlin only knew how many wizards and witches were caught every year trafficking dangerous classes of creatures in and out of the country. But it was rarely something the Aurors would ever need to be involved in, and if it was anyone else saying it to him, Ron might have been tempted to laugh. As it was, his headache just felt like it was getting worse.

"They might have a point this time, mate."

"What?"

Ron shifted. "A few weeks ago, my team hauled in this kid – "

"They what?"

"A kid. Eaton thought it was a time-traveling version of you." Harry looked at him skeptically. "Yeah, well…I got there, and the kid ran off with a couple of friends before I got a name."

"Why didn't you report this?"

Harry had an unreadable look on his face. As his boss, he should be reprimanding him on not filing a report, and as his best friend he expected to hear about these sorts of things.

"It was all a little strange, but I didn't honestly think it was the sort of incident that Eaton and the others needed to be reprimanded for. Eaton just watches a lot of that Muggle stuff, sci-whatsits?"

"Sci-Fi."

"That, yeah. Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures has had reports of some really strange creatures terrorizing London almost immediately following that incident."

"And you think they're related."

"It's a possibility. I don't think Eaton was right, or even close to being right. But she might have picked up on something. There was something a bit off about the kid, but we lost all trace of him and his friends and couldn't follow up."

"I guess you have a case then, Captain Weasley. Whatever happens though, please keep this from something that has to go to Kingsley. I have nightmares about paperwork as it is," Harry said, looking forlornly at his desk.

Ron nodded. There was no reason to jinx himself when he already had an awful feeling that this was the sort of thing that would in fact go straight to Kingsley's desk.

ooo

Speaking of awful feelings, Percy Jackson was not a happy camper.

Instead of spending what remained of his summer celebrating saving the world (again) and catching up on everything he had missed at camp, he had been sent off to London.

He really regretted mentioning that whole occult kidnapping incident to anyone now. Not only because it made it his second kidnapping, but because Chiron had been pretty alarmed. And it had landed him here, in another country clear across the Atlantic once again.

Chiron was worried about the cult people he'd run across last time. If they could kidnap one demigod, who was to say they hadn't gotten others? And with Percy's knack for finding trouble and lately for getting himself kidnapped, Chiron had thought him the perfect guy for the job.

He'd been vaguely aware that satyrs had been sent out not just all over the country but also across other continents on the chance of finding more demigods. He had yet to see any of these half-bloods, but that didn't really mean anything – Percy had been asleep for a good chunk of the year thanks to Hera, and fulfilling the next Great Prophecy.

So, with a nod to his companions, they set off into the city. There were a few satyrs they needed to find to figure out what was going on.

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Review, please! I should mention that I'll be apartment hunting and moving, so may not update for a while. But no worries :)


	3. Chapter 3

Standard disclaimer applies. Enjoy!

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Chapter Three

They had been waiting for Basil the satyr for over forty minutes.

Percy sighed. Chiron had set up the meeting and given them the time and place, and Percy was starting to wonder if there had been some sort of lapse in communication. They had already missed one satyr, and this one Chiron had gotten lucky to catch – the satyrs were all pretty busy these days. It was also possible this satyr really couldn't keep track of the days like Grover when he'd been out in the wild long enough.

At any rate, Percy could have slept in, and by the looks of it Clarisse seriously needed another five minutes. She was stalking around the meeting spot, spear gripped in her hand, mad _and _grumpy.

Actually, it was probably a good thing it was so early – there were no children around for her to scar permanently for life.

"Do we have any way of contacting this stupid satyr?" Clarisse demanded.

Annabeth, who had been standing next to him rambling about all the buildings she hoped they could see before leaving London, shot an irritated look at Clarisse for the interruption.

"No," Annabeth replied curtly. "We'll give him another twenty minutes, and go from there."

Percy wasn't worried. Annabeth had backup plans for her backup plans, and with his knack for drawing any and all trouble in the area, they probably didn't even need to meet this satyr. Clarisse wasn't happy about this, though, and commenced stomping around with her spear. Percy wasn't sure why she bothered – they hadn't really run into any monsters in the little time they'd been there, and nothing big. It was kind of nice.

"Shut it, punk."

"What?" Percy blinked at her. "I didn't even say anything!"

"But you were thinking something stupid."

Annabeth elbowed him sharply in the ribs.

He rolled his eyes. Yes, he _knew_ she was trying to start a fight out of boredom. And he honestly wasn't going to rise to the bait. He settled against the bronze statue behind him, the fairies and rabbits on the thing digging into his back.

Of course Basil the satyr had wanted to meet the demigods at the Peter Pan statue. It looked nothing like the Peter Pan in the Disney movie; even the reed pipes were different. While Percy was distracted, a satyr stumbled out of the bushes.

"Oh! You're here!"

Percy and Annabeth glanced at each other.

"Are you Basil?" Percy asked.

The satyr nodded, twigs falling out of his hat and hair. They introduced themselves.

"I'm glad you've come," he began, "as you know, we satyrs have been charged with protecting the wild places and finding new half-bloods. Usually I protect this park, but I keep a lookout for demigods."

Clarisse huffed. "Yeah we know. What do you know about the people who kidnapped _Prissy _over there?"

Basil looked a little indignant.

"I was getting to that. They're an odd situation. Technically, they belong to Hecate – the influence of _our _gods were pretty strong here."

Percy wasn't sure where he was going with this. What, they were only half Hecate's?

"And?" Clarisse was getting impatient.

"Well…magic existed here, and other places, well before Hecate arrived. They mixed, but it's different. And the people who kidnapped you," he nodded to Percy, "have their own magic and monsters. They're a blend of their old magic, Hecate's, and mortals."

Annabeth tucked her hair behind her ear, obviously thinking hard.

"So are you saying these people are more like mortals than demigods?"

"Yes. They have magic, but the Mist mostly works on them. They can see some of our monsters, but not all of them. And they deal with monsters we don't."

That kind of made sense to Percy. Where the flame of Western Civilization had moved, Chiron had said, so had the gods. But it wasn't like some of those places hadn't already had some previous gods or whatever around way before their Olympian parents arrived. So instead of these people's magic being entirely absorbed or faded, it had blended. And now these people were running around using it.

"And this has been going on since Rome conquered Britain?"

"The Olympians only had a brief foothold then, but it did start to change things," Basil told Annabeth.

"Are we going to have to deal with these people?"

Clarisse had asked the exact question on Percy's mind. Scary.

"I don't think so," Basil said, fiddling with his hat. "Your coming here stirred up some things that were dormant since the Olympians left Britain. I think everything will settle down once you get rid of the monsters."

"Chiron was kind of worried about these people, though. I may not be the first demigod, or even the last, that these guys have run into," Percy said. "I mean, it was all this giant mess of mistaken identity, but we should probably check them out."

Basil winced at this. He seemed more than a little reluctant to talk about Percy's strange magic wielding kidnappers. He started wringing his hat in his hands, and was staring determinedly at the statue behind Percy.

"When the Olympians were here, they were here a long time. But while they wielded their influence here, they never really took over the, er, people you ran into. Their magic was pretty strong. Some of Hecate's children joined them, and influenced their community, both culturally and the way they used their magic."

"But?"

"But the Olympians decided to basically leave them to themselves," Basil said. "They have run into demigods before, and just chalked them up to being very strange foreigners. Chiron doesn't have to worry – they never figured it out then, and they won't now."

This didn't look like an acceptable answer for Annabeth, but she seemed willing to drop it for the moment.

"Okay, then," she said. "Where are these monsters you want us to get rid of?"

Basil looked relieved.

"I spotted a few on Piccadilly, which isn't too far from here."

"Picca what? Pickles?" Percy knew he heard that wrong.

"Save it. We've got monsters to kill."

With that, Clarisse brandished her spear and they headed out.

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Review please. I seriously want to know what you thought of this chapter. I know it was a lot of explanation, but it should pick up again next chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

So people really like the wizards' take on things. Would you want to see more?

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Chapter Four

Ron slurped his coffee as he trudged down the corridor to the room they'd sectioned off. He was hoping that his team would find some clue to lead them to the dark-haired teenager he was sure was connected to the strange magical creatures that were said to be roaming London.

After the boy had escaped with his friends, Ron had had his team attempt to pursue, but the tunnel had collapsed too fast. Ron had the room sealed, with every intention of making his young team fix the damage – until they had realized there was no trace of magic last week.

It was a bit embarrassing to admit it had taken so long to notice that.

He rubbed his hand tiredly against his face. He was regretting not tipping in a little Pepper-Up potion into his coffee this morning, especially as he neared the room and the rather shrill tones of an indignant Helena Eaton reached him. Chand, for all he was worth, was giving it right back.

At this point Ron considered that his day might be devoted to karmic justice, or whatever that concept was. Only this morning his own darling children had had a monumental row at the breakfast table that had resulted in a somewhat dangerous burst of accidental magic from Hugo – he had sent all the dishes flying. And now his team was arguing in much the same way.

Sudden clarity came upon him then – this must be what Harry and the rest of Gryffindor Tower felt like throughout his time at Hogwarts.

Eaton and Chand were nose to nose when he entered the room, with Jenkins standing a fair distance away, wand ready.

"Alright," he said. "Whatever you're arguing about, it can wait. Have you found anything?"

After a ragged chorus of apologies, Jenkins stepped forward.

"Still no magic, sir. But Chand remembered something," he nodded to his teammate, his floppy brown hair covering his eye.

"It was the kid's sword, Captain Weasley. It was bronze, like something out of early civilization. And the other two had weapons as well. Not one of them used a wand."

Ron nodded. He had thought that was odd, and odder still when no trace of magic had been found in the tunnel. But what it could mean, he was not entirely certain. He had a sneaking suspicion he wouldn't like it though.

"Chand doesn't think they're dark wizards now," Eaton butted in. "I still think they got a hold of a time turner. Who uses weapons like that?"

Before anyone could reply, Harry appeared. He was clutching a struggling memo in one hand.

"Ron! That case of yours just jumped in importance. Some of those creatures were just spotted, and it looked like a kid matching the description you wrote up is with them. We might be able to still catch them."

As he hurried towards the lifts, he glanced at Harry.

"Are you coming?"

"Of course! I've been cooped up in the office too long."

They got on the lift and Ron looked up to see his team hurrying to catch up.

"Oh no. You three are staying here."

Ron would have enough trouble – no reason to give the kid a further reason to run.

Within moments, he and Harry reached the Atrium and apparated away.

ooo

Ron and Harry had landed in the middle of chaos.

Or at least, that was the impression he got the second it took to orient himself.

The street was torn up; the sidewalks were rubble, there were deep trenches scratched into the road, windows were blown out of the shops, and water pooled in the gutter.

And then there were the monsters.

No matter how hard he looked at them, he felt he couldn't quite see them clearly, as if someone had jinxed his eyesight. How could someone not include these things in _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_?

There were snake-like women slithering across the ruined street, the two snake trunks they had for legs propelling them forward. They were hissing as they skirmished with the three teenagers, using their nets and spears to trap them. There were at least five of the snake women things.

Ron and Harry sprinted down the street, ready to call defensive spells as they moved close enough to avoid hitting the teenagers.

Said teenagers did not appear to need their help, however.

Just as they reached them, the blonde girl slashed one of the snake women with her bronze knife, and the monster turned into dust.

As fascinating and unexpected as that was, however, he and Harry had cornered one. They began firing off the best offensive spells they knew – to little effect. In fact, the snake woman was smirking at them, and suddenly Ron wished he had a sword handy as well.

Then the other girl, with a particularly fierce expression, barreled into them. She knocked them onto the ground.

"This is not your fight," she growled.

In the next second she plunged her spear into the snake woman, who burst into a shower of dust just as the others had.

Ron and Harry were already on their feet and watching as the other two approached. The boy – who was definitely the one his team thought was a young time-traveling Harry – was swiping his arm across his brow as he stepped around the rubble.

"Do you think those were the last?"

The girl, whose startling gray eyes were assessing them, didn't answer.

"Whether those things were the last or not, I think you have time for a few questions," Harry said.

"How about you start with your name and what you're doing here?" Ron suggested.

The boy looked between them and cursed.

The one with the spear took a threatening step towards them just as the road beneath them shuddered. From around the corner a huge, two-headed serpent had rolled itself across the rubble towards them.

Both heads lunged to strike.

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Don't forget to review, guys!


	5. Chapter 5

To Guest: your idea was interesting, but I had this part planned for a while.

Hope you enjoy it!

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Chapter Five

As soon as the giant, two-headed snake thing appeared, Ron seriously regretted getting up that morning. From the strained, and oddly resigned look Harry gave him as he and the teenagers backed as far away from the thing as they could, he thought Harry must be thinking the same thing.

That, or he was already imagining the horrific amounts of paperwork this incident would surely entail.

Either way, Ron didn't have much time to think about it, because the particularly vicious girl with the spear looked like she was ready to knock them out at any moment.

Then the blonde girl caught her attention.

"Clarisse! We need to kill this thing first."

She glared at them fiercely. "Whatever you say, Princess," she snarled.

Harry had clearly had enough of all this. He (or Ron for that matter) was not going to let a bunch of teenagers handle this alone, even if they seemed more than capable and equipped to do so. Ron sensed there was something vaguely hypocritical about this statement, but now was not really the time for any sort of self-reflection.

The teens brandished their weapons, and appeared to be consulting each other on some sort of battle plan. The ginormous snake thing was fluidly propelling its scaled, sinuous body across the rubble. It did not appear to be moving nearly as fast as it was capable of, however, and Ron almost felt like they were being toyed with.

He hadn't felt this helpless since he was a teenager himself.

Harry had stalked forward, wordlessly firing defensive spell and spell at the thing. Ron had quickly joined in, though their combined efforts had repelled the thing back a few paces, it had done little else.

And then they were tackled again, for the second time in as many minutes.

This was getting a little embarrassing.

It was the blonde who had blind-sided them; her serious gray eyes were flickering between their wands and her companions who were each battling a snakehead and what looked like unsightly amounts of poison.

She snapped her fingers at them, just as a gust of wind whipped their clothes.

"Please stay here. You know your weapons aren't working. In fact, you shouldn't even be here. You should get very far way, and forget you ever came."

They both frowned at her. It was almost as if she was trying to Obliviate them without a wand. The girl frowned, obviously frustrated.

"Just stay here."

Before they could comment on that, she'd run off to help.

Harry started forward, obviously irked by a girl not much older than Victoire handing out orders.

"Now hold on a minute mate, she's got a point. I think we'd only get in the way."

"This is ridiculous. Why didn't any of our spells work? Who are these kids?"

Harry was frowning in such a way that made Ron think unpleasantly of the summer before fifth year, and how well Harry did not take to being left out of the loop.

"Oh, it's an amphisbaina! How fascinating," said a voice immediately behind them.

They both jumped.

Ron, if he was honest, was not at all surprised to see his wife. Some part of him had even vaguely been wondering what was taking her so long – she could hardly stay out of such situations.

"Hermione!" Harry sounded both startled and exasperated. "What are you doing here?"

Hermione gave him a Look, one Ron was more than familiar with. "Did you really think you could hide something like this from me? Who do you think arranged for our departments to work together?"

"What? Aren't you working on something for the house elves?"

"I am capable of multitasking, Harry."

"And I think we ought to step back," Ron interjected.

He had been watching their progress with the amphisbaina, or whatever Hermione had called it. The poison dripping off the fangs of both of its heads seemed to be giving the teens a bit of trouble.

"Hermione, you called it something. You know what it is?" Harry asked.

"Well, I'm fairly certain. I read the reports on what people were seeing, and I had an idea on where to look. Oddly, I only could find references in Muggle texts on mythology, but –"

"Do you know why our spells had no effect?" Harry cut her off.

Before she could answer, the amphisbaina burst apart into a cloud of glittering dust that was quickly blown away by the wind.

Nonplussed, the three of them watched as the teens warily approached them. Hermione was eyeing them critically. She had that look on her face – the one that made Ron swear he could actually hear her thinking. She had, once again, noted something both obvious and critically important about these teenagers. Where Ron had once resented Hermione's brilliance, he could truly appreciate it in moments like this. A look of shock had lit up her face.

"Merlin's Pants," she breathed. "It shouldn't even be possible. But the bronze, combined with the monsters… this could change everything!"

The teens were now only a few feet away from them, their weapons conspicuously held at their sides, but at least not pointed at them. Harry and Ron, who had both raised their wands, lowered them when Hermione made impatient gestures at the both of them. Years of habit coupled with the knowledge that she had rarely steered them wrong was enough to trump Auror protocol.

The three teens were having a whispered conversation that Ron could only just make out, and what he heard was confusing without Hermione nearly thrumming with excitement beside him. Judging by the expression on Harry's face when he glanced at him, they both thought that didn't bode well.

"Maybe you should try manipulating the Mist again," the boy muttered.

"I don't think it's going to work on these people," the blonde said.

Was that what she was trying to do earlier? Whatever it was, Ron didn't have the time to wonder.

"You know," Ron began, "the first time we met might have been an accident on my team's part. But this isn't looking good for you, mate."

The boy grimaced.

"We can explain – "

"Yes I think you need to," Harry cut in. "Between the creatures we've never heard of, and your weapons, there's a lot going on here that I would like an explanation for. Don't attempt to lie, either. I know the look of a kid trying to talk himself out of trouble."

None of the teens appreciated that last bit at all.

Ron himself thought it was a little unfair; they'd done the same thing in school, and he had a feeling these teens were in a similar situation.

"Well?" Harry asked.

The three frowned at each other.

"Oh, I think I have an explanation for you, Harry," Hermione said. There was a smug look on her face. "They're demigods."

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Note: Next chapter is the last. So I have a couple questions for you: would you like to see the end from the wizard's perspective? And do you want them to remember this experience? Don't forget to review :)


	6. Chapter 6

Note: This is the last chapter. Enjoy.

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Chapter Six

"You _are _demigods. There is no use in denying it: the monsters, the weapons, even your battle tactics. I can't believe you've remained hidden so long, in fact it was a little difficult to even find traces of you until I really started examining Muggle history, once I realized I recognized the descriptions of the monsters. It's absolutely fascinating how efficiently you've blended in among the Muggles…" said the woman.

So much for no one figuring it out.

Percy didn't know where she had come from. She had appeared at some point while they were getting rid of the nasty two-headed snake, and she seemed kind of excited.

With every word out of her mouth, he got increasingly nervous. Clarisse and Annabeth both had hard looks on their faces; Clarisse looked ready to bash the woman with her spear any moment.

"Hermione, love," interrupted the redhead. Percy was pretty sure it was CaptainWeasley. "Now is not the time. Let Harry and me ask them a couple questions first."

"Honestly Ronald, I just told you. This is my division."

"What, are you saying they're _beings_? They're teenagers!"

As they bickered, Percy leaned towards Annabeth.

"Shouldn't we be running now?" He whispered.

She tucked a loose curl behind her ear. "The Mist didn't work, and I kind of want to know why. I mean, Basil said it _mostly_ worked."

"It's magic, end of story." Clarisse said.

"Yeah, but why do they have to use wands?"

Percy nearly groaned. Chiron didn't want them to have anything to do with these people – this would be exactly what he didn't want to happen.

"Okay, enough!" It was other guy, with the glasses.

He looked sort of familiar.

"Hey," Percy said. "You're that guy from that picture. I really don't look anything like you. Aside from, you know, some basics."

Everyone turned to look at him. He hadn't exactly meant to say that out loud, but it was too late now. And it's not like it wasn't true.

"And do you have a name?" This guy needed some coffee.

"Uh," he looked at Annabeth, who shrugged. "My name's Percy. This is Annabeth and Clarisse."

"I'm Hermione Weasley, and you've already met my husband, Ron," she nodded to the captain. "And that's Harry Potter. Now I heard you say something about magic. Is yours vastly different than ours? I shouldn't really think so, but there are obviously differences."

"Not really," Annabeth began slowly. "I don't think we would be able to affect each other at all if they were completely different. But you know who we are; has your group taken any others?"

"Nope. Complete fluke, on my team's part," Ron interjected. "And the amount of trouble and paperwork it's caused me is just unfair."

"I thought they were supposed to be some sort of occult group," Clarisse said to Percy and Annabeth.

"Goodness no! We're a wizarding community with a governing body," Hermione explained.

Annabeth and Hermione descended into a rapid conversation that Percy quickly lost track of. His mind was still stuck on the whole wizard thing. He supposed it wasn't that much of a stretch – he was the son of a god, after all.

"So…you're not going to haul me off to your dungeon or something again, are you?" Percy felt this was a valid question.

Ron and Harry looked at each other.

"Don't think so, mate," Ron began. "This would be a nightmare to explain."

"And the paperwork," Harry sighed. He didn't seem nearly as exasperated anymore. "That alone is enough to make me just forget you three were ever here. Demigods," he shook his head. "This is exactly the sort of thing that would end up in _The Quibbler_."

"Excellent idea, Harry." Hermione and Annabeth had rejoined them. "I was already considering bringing Luna in. As much I would like otherwise," she looked at Annabeth regretfully. "We think it's for the best if our worlds remain separate. We would only increase our chances of exposure."

"And you guys shouldn't have too much of a monster problem once we leave. If you do, I've let Hermione know how to contact camp," Annabeth added.

"So what, you want Luna and Rolf to say this is one of her previously undiscovered creatures?" Ron asked.

Hermione nodded. "More like something that was previously thought extinct. I'm sure we could come up with something plausible."

"Thank Merlin for Luna," Harry said.

They all stood around for second, not quite looking at each other and eyes coasting over the complete state of destruction the street had been left in.

"Sorry about the mess," Percy said a little lamely.

Clarisse rolled her eyes at him.

"We're done here, right? They're not gonna haul off any more demigods, and we took care of the major monsters _Prissy_ stirred up here last time. Our mission is complete, we can go home."

"Yeah." Annabeth was looking more than a little reluctant. Percy could guess why; Hermione reminded him of her siblings, and they probably had a lot to talk about. Percy, personally, wasn't that interested. They had enough to deal with at home.

"You ought to go now," Hermione said. She looked just as reluctant as Annabeth. "We'll get this all straightened out. I really wish we had gotten a chance to know each other better."

"Same," Annabeth smiled.

"Come _on _already! Enough of the mushy crap."

Clarisse turned and started to stalk away through the rubble. Percy could hear sirens in the distance. It was definitely time to get out of there.

Percy and Annabeth awkwardly said their goodbyes before running after Clarisse. This would rank as one of their stranger missions, and one they were unlikely to ever forget.

* * *

And we're done. Seriously, it's been fun. Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts!


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